1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to printing systems, printing apparatuses and terminal apparatuses employed in printing systems, and printing methods. The present invention relates more particularly to a printing system where a plurality of printing apparatuses are connected via a network and usage of the printing-apparatuses is restricted, and a printing apparatus and a terminal apparatus employed in such a printing system. The present invention also relates more particularly to a printing method employed in such a printing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As more apparatuses are connected via a network in an office, a variety of users can now access printing apparatuses. Under these circumstances, several methods of restricting usage of the printing apparatuses have been proposed. According to these methods, the access right of each user or an amount of use of each printer by each user can be set in each printing apparatus so that restriction can be imposed on usage of each printing apparatus.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 8-314648 discloses a printing apparatus including a storage part storing the access right of a user to the printing apparatus and the recording conditions (marginal conditions) of the user so as to restrict the recording output of the print data of the user.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-282120 discloses a print control apparatus that controls an access of a user to a printer by determining whether a user is accessible to an object for printing based on access control information attached to the object.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 10-161823 discloses a printing system that sets the authority of a user to use a printer apparatus for each function thereof in a database and determines whether the user is authorized to use the printer with respect to each function based on information included in a print request from the user and the usage authority thereof set in the database.
However, according to the conventional methods, it is often a manager of apparatuses (including printing apparatuses) that sets the access right of each user, so that the users are prevented from being informed immediately of changes in their access rights. Further, if the number of sheets that each user can use is restricted, a printing apparatus is prevented from performing printing any further when the number of sheets used by a user reaches the upper limit. In these cases, it is only after requesting a print job to be executed that each user is informed whether she/he is authorized to use the printing apparatus.